So that the treasurer, on this account, would appear to have been in advance. But there was, doubtless, money daily coming in, and he probably had some bills not yet discharged.
The calculations of Bishop Fleetwood’s tables show the value of money to have been fifteen times as great at that day as it is now. This would make the royal revenue to amount to about £800,000 per annum. Out of which the king paid, in 1300, what would now be about £500,000, for his troops, seamen, garrisons, etc.; about £270,000 for the expenses of his household, exclusive of robes, jewels, huntsmen, and charities; which last item, of alms and oblations, in the money of our time, would be equal to nearly £18,000 a‐year.
II., page 165.
EDWARD’S OBTESTATION.
At first sight, remembering the constant and earnest attention to religious duties shown by Edward, we were inclined to doubt whether the chronicler might not be in error in ascribing this oath to the king; the more especially since the person addressed was named Bigod; so that it would be easy to fall into such an error. But, looking a little further, we found the pope himself, in a public reception of Edward’s ambassadors, asseverating “per Deum,” that he would do the king justice. So that it seems tolerably clear that even religious men, in those days, thought it lawful to use language similar to that employed by Abraham (Gen. xxiv. 3), by Joab (2 Sam. xix. 7), and by Nehemiah (xiii. 25). As to Edward himself, his whole character assures us, that he never used the Divine name lightly or irreverently.
III., page 239.
PARLIAMENT OF LINCOLN.
The requests preferred by the barons, and accorded by the king, were the Ist, IInd, IIIrd, IVth, and Vth, the VIIIth, IXth, Xth, and XIth. Those which he did not concede, were the following:—